A Series of Unfortunate Events or something

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I've seen the Netflix show. I'm not familiar with the books and I haven't seen the movie with Jim Carrey and Emily Browning either so I'm just gonna judge it on its own merits.

It's pretty funny, has a very appealing if kinda cheap looking Tim Burton-y artstyle, isn't afraid to go dark and seems like it's setting up an engaging overarching mystery. As of now, though, it does have its problems. The episodes are a bit formulaic, the side characters are a bit hit and miss (I liked the lizard guy, didn't care much for the paranoid aunt and the banker... well, the guy playing him is funny but it's just an annoying character. Deliberately annoying, obviously, but it's a joke that overstays its welcome.) and Count Olaf... I mean, I like him well enough. Harris does a good job. His henchmen are absolutely fantastic, right of a Jeunet movie. He's just a bit too buffoonish to be the only villain in the show. The problem is, he's only a credible threat because all the adults are completely incompetent. And, I mean, that's obviously the joke but he seems like the kind of villain that would eventually have a smaller role or dissapear entirely in favour of a bigger, more threatening villain. Maybe that's what's gonna happen in later seasons, I don't know.

Oh, and I really like Patrick Warburton as the narrator. The man has a great voice and he manages to deliver his lines with just the right amount of sadness and dry wit.

 

[Dalisclock]

I've seen the Netflix show. I'm not familiar with the books and I haven't seen the movie with Jim Carrey and Emily Browning either so I'm just gonna judge it on its own merits.

It's pretty funny, has a very appealing if kinda cheap looking Tim Burton-y artstyle, isn't afraid to go dark and seems like it's setting up an engaging overarching mystery. As of now, though, it does have its problems. The episodes are a bit formulaic, the side characters are a bit hit and miss (I liked the lizard guy, didn't care much for the paranoid aunt and the banker... well, the guy playing him is funny but it's just an annoying character. Deliberately annoying, obviously, but it's a joke that overstays its welcome.) and Count Olaf... I mean, I like him well enough. Harris does a good job. His henchmen are absolutely fantastic, right of a Jeunet movie. He's just a bit too buffoonish to be the only villain in the show. The problem is, he's only a credible threat because all the adults are completely incompetent. And, I mean, that's obviously the joke but he seems like the kind of villain that would eventually have a smaller role or dissapear entirely in favour of a bigger, more threatening villain. Maybe that's what's gonna happen in later seasons, I don't know.

The books have many of the same issues. The kids consistently see right through Olaf's disguises immediately, and nobody believes them, despite the fact they're continually right. They're just accused of being paranoid and troublemakers. Anyone who is smart enough to catch on is either useless(like Mr. Poe) or ends up dead(Uncle Monty). Ironically, in the books, Olaf's minions often seem to blend in well enough the kids don't recognize them, something the show doesn't even bother with.

I tend to put it down to that weird sort of kids book logic. Like how the whole marriage thing almost worked except for a single detail(because obviously there wouldn't be a clause about a legal guardian being able to marry their own adopted child).

 

[Vault101]

As a reader of the books I was initially "hmmm ok I'm not sure where your going with this but we'll see"

and then afterward I was like "oooohhhh ok that was pretty cool you got me" I think it took a little while for me to really gel with what how they approached the adaptation. I also like the fact that there were enough surprises for me

It's pretty funny, has a very appealing if kinda cheap looking Tim Burton-y artstyle.

you can tell they are definitely working with less than they had for the movie but ultimately the TV format suits the books better (and they make it work) the movie did a lot of cool stuff but it was never going to be able to really tell the story...mabye the problem was all that budget was put behind something that could never be the next harry potter...I mean christ it was only the other day I realized Aunt Josephine in the movie was played by Meryl streep!

speaking of casting has anyone noticed the girls who plays violet in both the netflix show and movie look strikingly similar?

I tend to put it down to that weird sort of kids book logic.

that's pretty much it,kids media has historically had incompetent adults of varying levels. You could also argue one of the main themes in ASOUE is that adults and by extension Authority aren't always going to be able to help you even if they have good intentions

As a kid the books were just funny and engaging enough so it didn't get frustrating (or as frustrating as it could be) since I'm an adult it's a lot more grating but the show is still watchable

 

[Asita]

From what I've seen of the show, it does a fantastic job. And breaking it down to two episodes for each book and continuing through to cover all thirteen books over three seasons seems like a good system for me.

As for the tone the show tries to set, I'll just put this season finale song right here:

...Ok, is anyone else bothered by the fact that the guy playing Klaus seems intent on moving his mouth as little as possible in that song? Because I find it very distracting.

 

[Hawki]

...Ok, is anyone else bothered by the fact that the guy playing Klaus seems intent on moving his mouth as little as possible in that song? Because I find it very distracting.

A bit, but I think he's just awkward because of lack of acting experience. It's telling in the song that it's the adults who are doing most of the singing/acting.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

...Ok, is anyone else bothered by the fact that the guy playing Klaus seems intent on moving his mouth as little as possible in that song? Because I find it very distracting.

Given how hard it is to hear his voice when he is singing and how he's the only character who doesn't have a solo line, I'm thinking he just isn't a very good singer and they're minimizing his vocals to help cover it.

Plus, Violet doesn't really move her lips either, so I didn't notice all that much.

 

[klaynexas3]

Count Olaf is one of very few characters who should be simultaneously both pathetic and intimidating. It's a damn rare kind of character, and difficult to pull off. I don't really think Jim Carrey understood that about the character (or if he did, didn't take it in that direction).

From what I've seen, neither the film nor the show (granted, that's only trailers for me) has understood Olaf's character.

Olaf isn't a nice person. He isn't even that funny a person. If he makes a joke, you're holding your breath, because he's liable to slit your throat as the punchline. There's a level of absurdity throughout all the books, but as rediculous as his disguises can get, Olaf is an intimidating figure who's willing to kill anyone to get his hands on the Baudelaire fortune. Even at the very end, while he does get some humanity revealed to him, he remains unrepentant.

I'd actually argue that Carrey got it closer than NPH, at least from what I remember of the books and the movie. I remember from the movie Carrey feeling much more intimidating, not only in voice but just in his presence. For one, Olaf was supposed to be tall. Not the tallest of his troupe, sure, but taller than most people, someone that would tower over you. Carrey felt closer on this physical note. On top of that, while his disguises were never good, like you said, he never felt actively light hearted or humorous, or even like a bumbling villain, as the show seems to show him more as(though everyone else is just as, if not more stupid, so he's still on the side of being more competent than most people in this universe). I just remember Carrey being much more menacing, which I feel he is actually capable of doing. Now, the movie had a lot of issues, but I'd say the casting for Olaf and his screen presence was one of the better notes of the film. NPH just feels goofy and silly, and sure he's villainous, but it's almost endearing watching him try in the show.

As for other things to comment with about the series, I remember the books being far more subtle about the background plot of the secret organizations and the children's parents ties with Count Olaf and the possibility of them even being alive. I don't remember that ever being fully confirmed, because the children never found their parents. They just managed to survive long enough for everyone out to get them to die out and then they could return to civilization and attempt to live their lives finally with Violet coming of age. The books did seem much more darker as well, while the show seems to be trying to make you think it's dark, but it still feels silly and fun more than dark.

Positives to say about the show though, I like Warburton as Lemoney and I like the fact that Lemoney is actually a character, because he never was a silent narrator in the books. I also like the actors they got for Olaf's henchmen, Poe, the orphan's aunt and uncle as well as the orphans themselves, they actually look their ages, where the movie had them looking much older. I like that each book is getting plenty of attention, and that they are finally getting past the first three books, and I even do like Will Arnet, even if I don't think we should be seeing the orphan's parents at all. The humor is still funny, the show still feels fun, and I like that for what it is.

My biggest issue is that despite information being closer to the source material, the tone definitely is much lighter than it should be. This is without having finished the last two episodes, or having read the books in something close to 8 or 10 years, so I could be wrong and it could just start out light hearted to really drive home the point later on when it does get dark, or the books themselves could have been much less subtle than a younger me would have thought and much more light hearted than I thought. That's the issue with critically looking at a series that hasn't finished, it's hard to judge if a specific part will work well when setting up future events without knowing exactly what those future events will be. I'm hoping that they can work at making things a bit darker, as the entire series is built around being a dark and edgy series for dark and edgy kids. It's supposed to be unpleasant and tense, as the theme song even states fairly plainly, it just seems to spend more time saying that the show is unpleasant than actually showing that everything is actually unpleasant. The book stated it many times, but when I was a kid I felt they actually followed up with things being appropriately dark, whereas the show just feels like it's saying things are dark while making a quick joke. It has made me want to go back and rewatch the movie and reread the books to see if things actually were like I remembered them, or if I'm just looking at things through my nostalgia glasses.

At any rate, it's still a good show, and I'm happy to see the material get adapted into something again, because this series does deserve more recognition than it gets. I hope it sparks more kids to get around to reading the series now, which is always a good thing. No publicity is bad publicity I suppose.

 

[Elijin]

Olaf is clearly just passing time waiting for a letter from bad horse.

 

[maninahat]

I only managed the first episode. I found it a bit too oblong (no doubt because its first arc was stretched to a two parter episode), but the bigger problems was the tone. I've been critical of the books and film because they are nowhere as gleefully nasty as the narrator promises, but here it seems to be the opposite problem: the antagonist isn't as colourful or silly as Carey's version, so it isn't very fun to watch him abuse and slap around children.

Also the CGI sucks.